Henri Guillaume Galeotti

Who was Henri Guillaume Galeotti?

Henri Guillaume Galeotti was a French-Belgian botanist and geologist of Italian parentage born in Paris. He specialized in the study of the family Cactaceae.

He studied geology and natural history at the Etablissement Géographique de Bruxelles, where he graduated in 1835 with an award-winning dissertation on the geology of Brabant. After graduation, he spent the next five years in Mexico performing geological and botanical research. Here he collected numerous new species of plants, particularly cacti.

In 1840 Galeotti was offered a position teaching botany at the University of Brussels, but turned down the offer, preferring to work at his nursery outside of Brussels, from where he imported Mexican flora for sell in Europe. During this time period, he collaborated with botanist Martin Martens on scientific study of species native to Mexico. In 1853 he became director of the Jardin botanique de Bruxelles, a position he maintained until his death in 1858 from tuberculosis.

In 1852 he became editor of the Journal d'Horticulture Pratique, and in 1857 created the Bulletin de la Société Royale d’Horticulture de Belgique et du Jardin botanique de Bruxelles. After Galeotti's death in 1858, his personal Mexican herbarium was purchased from his widow by the Jardin botanique de Bruxelles.